Dieselgate Cars for Export
Why would someone build a massive parking lot in rural Virginia and fill it with cars?
I drive by this place every day. For the past decade it has been an unused industrial property. There was a foundry there at one point, but it is long gone and all that is left is half of one small building and a lot of asphalt. Last spring, someone started clearing out all of the brush that had started taking over and turned it into a giant parking lot. They put up chain-link fences and security lights, too. Then the cars started arriving.
Every day a few car haulers would show up to unload cars and pretty soon there were thousands of them. At this point there are probably 10,000 cars on the lot. There is no other activity on the site, no sign of a sale going on or something else that would explain what is happening. I didn't understand what was going on until someone pointed out that all the cars are the same brand - Volkswagon.
These are all cars that were caught up in the dieselgate scandal from two years ago. VW was caught cheating on the emissions testing for their "fuel efficient" diesel engines. The engineers programmed the engine computer to recognize when it is getting an emissions test and run in a ultra-efficient mode while the test is being done then go back to a high performance mode when the car is back on the road.
There was an article about the business in the Lynchburg newspaper. The pictures in this post look a lot like the ones in the article even though I took them myself. There is really only one good place to stand to see the whole parking lot.
Apparently the plan is for these cars to be exported to South Asia, South America, and Africa. I'm not sure whether or not this is a good thing or if we should be outraged. On one hand, the cars pollute a lot more than they are supposed to and VW has agreed to take them off the road and refund the defrauded customers. It seems like cheating to turn around an resell the same cars to unsuspecting people in other countries. On the other hand, these cars represent a huge investment of materials, energy, and other resources, so destroying them ensures that all of those resources go to waste. If a dieselgate VW can provide someone in Africa a opportunity to own a reliable, affordable car, then maybe that is the best use for them.
What do you think?
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STOPIn a world where disclosure of information is at the touch of the fingertip I think its prudent for buyers to do their due diligence, now that being said , I think its fine for a business to recoup losses I also agree that it would be a huge loss of said resources and I believe VW could purchase the green credits as an off set to the co2 increase...
If the potential harm was only going to fall on the owner then I think you are right. Buyer beware.
In this case, though, the harm is to the air-breathing residents of the buyer's city. That has to change the moral problem, doesn't it?
Personal Opinion only, no facts to back up my views.:
Those cars should have the engines ripped out and less polluting engines replacing them. The are diesels, Diesel fuel is one of the major causes of autism, along with vaccines. Autism used to be a "Country" problem, not a city problem, until more and more busses that burned diesel were put into use, and then the rich people needing their special diesel mercedes benz cars burning diesel. Remember where Autism started where it was a problem, then where that problem moved to, and what fuel followed the trend. *Rip out the offending engines, and put something somewhat safer in them.
I think that VW has admitted that it has no cost-effective way of repairing the cars. They opted for buying them back rather than replacing the engines. I think I read somewhere that the buyback agreement with the court required the cars to be permanently destroyed.
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STOPit does seem very shady to ship them off around the world but with big businesses I am never surprised any more
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My instinct is to say this is awful - but I wonder how they compare to other car pollution standards in the countries to whichc they will be sent. My instinct is to say "pretty well".
My thoughts exactly. They are probably safe, reliable cars that will outperform and outlast many cars on the road now, especially in relatively poor countries.
The other interesting aspect of this story is that the lot is on the floodplain of a major river. I would be very curious to see the insurance policy for the business.
That's a funny way to get rid of pennies on the dollar cars
Interesting find from your area! Thanks for sharing it.
I owned one of the affected Jetta TDI vehicles (sold it some time after the scandal to a friend for reasons unrelated).
From my point of view the situation is very unfortunate. As you pointed out:
I do hope they end up improving the transportation options for people in Asia, South American, Africa or wherever they're shipped. It seems too bad though given the extremely small scale of the emissions issue when examined closely. As I understand it the EPA essentially demands 100% emissions compliance and VW "cheated" by using software to only give 100% at test time and 99.9999% the rest of the time - all while benefiting the consumer with better MPG and performance on the road.
VW should have been honest about the cars operational emissions but the EPA requirements are so severe on diesels in the US that I think the EPA is the one actually causing "harm" to consumers by eliminating low-cost, high quality efficient transportation options. The air in Germany and Scandinavia is quite clean yet they have a larger percentage of diesels vehicle on the road that wouldn't be allowed in the US due to EPA regulations.
In Denmark I spent a few weeks with a BMW 320d which was more powerful, comfortable and efficient than many of the Dieselgate Volkswagens. It returned 50 MPG with ease. Unfortunately cars like the 320d aren't common in the US because of the EPA rules.
I'd be curious to hear when you see the lot start emptying out.
The current estimate is that the affected cars produce 40 times more NOx when they are running on the road compared to the test values in "cheat mode." That sounds pretty bad, but it might get some even worse cars off the road in poor countries.
Here in my small town there is a small but very active market for used cars, mostly from the 80s and 90s. These old jeeps and suzuki trucks and buses older than I am are repaired over and over again, but when some of them drive past you it can feel like the dawn of the industrial revolution all over again.
Right. One of the things I was trying to communicate was that 40x a minuscule number is still a minuscule number so perhaps the EPA is overzealous in their requirements (especially compared to Europe).
I think you're right: It seem like this could/will replace some cars in other countries that are putting out higher levels of emissions right now which would be positive.
May be you are right, this car will send to third country.
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